Film Review: Ready Player One

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn

Running time: 140 mins

At the age of 71, Steven Spielberg shows absolutely no intent to slow down with his roaring sci-fi action flick Ready Player One. Already his second release of 2018 in the UK, it’s a hard task not to be struck down by the sheer craftsmanship from one of cinema’s greatest. Ready Player One jumps into a desolate 2045 and spits out Wade Watts, a person coming to the end of his adolescence who ‘was born after people stopped trying to fix problems and just outlive them.’ Tye Sheridan (Mud, Joe) does a solid job as Wade Watts who is also flanked by his best friend Aech, uncannily voiced and later performed by Lena Waithe (Master of None, Transparent) and Samantha who is brilliantly portrayed by Olivia Cooke (The Limehouse Golem, Ouija).

Wade describes that to get away from the destructive, harsh real world, he, with everybody else, must escape to the immersive virtual universe of the OASIS. Created by the eccentric Steve Jobs-like James Halliday (Mark Rylance: Dunkirk, Bridge of Spies), who, after his death, has left three ‘Easter-Eggs’ somewhere in the game which, when found, lead to his immense, unrivalled fortune. Of course not everybody wants to play fair.

There is no other place to start other than the pop-culture elements in this film, a fantastic soundtrack leads the way with a number of 80’s classics. Just like Guardians of the Galaxy, this film is begging to be played through the loudest sound system possible. There’s nods to King Kong, nostalgic arcade games which hopefully don’t go unmissed with the younger generation, and a great self-referential nod from Spielberg to Jurassic Park. The benchmark, though, falls at the feet of The Overlook Hotel. A fantastic sequence taken from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, of course originally a novel by Stephen King, which is as horrifying as it is hilarious. It would be all too easy for these nods to become parodic and tiring, but the film gets the balance perfect throughout.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of the film is set in the virtual reality universe. There’s a huge emphasis throughout on blurring the lines between what is reality and what isn’t. Players can opt to use their own real-life money to upgrade their characters in the game while also collecting coins from other players. However, dying or ‘maxing out’ can be catastrophic as players lose everything: not only in the game, but in real life itself. One character even states "we forget what it’s like to be outside," whilst a news report asks if Halliday is "playing a game or playing God?" It is always clear visually where the action is, whether we are in the real world or not. But this is not the case for the characters, leading to confused morals, quickly determined love interests and an insane amount of excitement.

There are some problems with the film, however, and if I was to be cynical then it’s possible to argue the characters are rather two-dimensional. Throughout the search for the Easter Eggs their motives are quite shallow which leads to a disconnection between protagonist and spectator. When asked what he'd do with the prize money, Wade quickly states he would ‘buy a mansion’ without giving much else. Other than being top of the leaderboard, and the prospect of a huge sum of money, there isn’t much more at stake for these characters. This wasn’t a huge surprise though, and overall doesn’t detract from the experience too much. The film could possibly shave off twenty minutes from the end as the third act becomes a little baggy in places with exposition and with what essentially does become a more familiar ‘final battle’ sequence.

Despite these problems, though, the whole thing is kept together by a razor sharp script full of quick-witted quips and humour which never once felt grating or over-stated. The amount of charm in the film is a credit to the writers and director who, despite some questionable motives at times, have produced a fantastic feel-good film, and a real romp of cinematic spectacle.

Did you know? Christopher Nolan, Robert Zemeckis, Matthew Vaughn, Peter Jackson and Edgar Wright were all considered to direct before Steven Spielberg signed on.

Trailer

Ready Player One is in cinemas from 28 March